[2020] Aging Mechanic

Original Post — Direct link

Hello, I just started playing and wanted to point out some things.

I wanted to do a human campaign but the aging mechanic is turning me off so much. It feels like I'm getting punished for getting attached to my villagers which is pretty sadd. This leaves me to play Ancients but mages and magic stuff is not really my type. I prefer iron and steel things. I just hope that the age will be tweaked on later updates.

The other unimplemented races might possibly have longer lifespans that suite the current aging mechanic more than humans but it's still kinda a bummer for human campaigns.

EDIT:This is a totally unrelated question but how can I craft swords? The only proper melee weapon I can craft is a steel war axe and stone daggers.

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over 4 years ago - /u/unknownorigingames - Direct link

Thanks for the feedback!

Do you have an ideal amount of days you think they should live for? My reasoning for keeping their lives shorter is to give settlers more value. If they live for a long time, then they are just pawns. I'm trying to move the game away from that feel (adding more personality traits in the future as an example).

As for making swords, you can make iron swords but none of the other material types have swords just yet. My next update introduces a TON of new crafting options for all materials but you'll have to wait while I finish it.

over 4 years ago - /u/unknownorigingames - Direct link

Originally posted by rockhydra94

I think they should live for 20-30 hours of playtime

Ok. Why do you think that?

edit: Currently, from birth to death, a human settler lives for, on average, ~27 hrs of play-time. This is factoring in speeding up the game too.

over 4 years ago - /u/unknownorigingames - Direct link

Originally posted by TrueLoliMaestro

Wow response is fast, this is nice.

Well to be honest I don't have a solid grasp on how long they should live but personally I think that 132-140 days(2.5-3 full seasons). I think that this is a nice balance considering that some humans you start off with are as old as 50-60 yrs old.

But the thing that really bummed me the most is the "age number". I was not expecting my solo human at his starting at his prime suddenly turned middle aged after an hour or so since I was shocked to know that one day is equal to a year.

Also I'm currently doing an Ancient playthrough( ferocious-ferocious) and reached autumn but there is still no merchant that came to visit, Is this normal for Ancients?.

Lastly, this game is pretty fun :)

Well, a year in the game is 60 days (with 4 seasons). So, the avg 100 day lifespan would be about two game years if you had the settler from birth.

Here's a breakdown of play-time:

Each hour of in-game time is 60 seconds of play-time. So, on the slowest speed, a day of in-game time is 24 minutes of play-time. That is 1440 minutes (24 min x 60 days) or 24 hrs of play-time for one year to pass. If you're playing on the fastest speed (time is sped up by a factor of 8), that's 180 minutes or 3 hrs of play-time for one year to pass. Let's use the mean and say it takes about 810 minutes or 13.5 hrs of play-time because most people flip back and forth.

This means that a settler will be around for ~2 years which ends up being ~27 hrs of play-time.

over 4 years ago - /u/unknownorigingames - Direct link

Originally posted by rockhydra94

I guess I can't quantify it in numbers, but I can describe how I feel.

I think that even an old character should be allowed to live long enough to see a few battles and achieve some milestones and have their story play out.

For me the game is really fun when I identify with a character and we can grow together.

I chose an older settler to be the main character in my story. He didn't live to see the first battle and I felt like his story was cut short. I was hoping that he would live long enough to achieve many victories in battle and see the construction of a great settlement.

I hope that makes sense. Thank you for a wonderful game.

Perfect sense! Thanks for elaborating. :)

over 4 years ago - /u/unknownorigingames - Direct link

Originally posted by RushVoidStaff

Did you mean each hour of in game time is 60 seconds of play time?

Yep! Cheers ^ . ^

over 4 years ago - /u/unknownorigingames - Direct link

Originally posted by Croce11

I think the best solution is to just let the players decide how many days it takes to age people up by a year. 1 day being the default setting, maybe going as high as 10-15 days or higher.

Right now people live so short that I don't feel like investing in their skills is worth it. I can rename people but I don't feel bothered to do so since they just die after a year or two anyways. If someone dies in combat it doesn't feel like that big of a deal they were going to die soon anyways.

There's pros and cons to each type of setting. Which is why it should be player choice in some options menu.

If I want to do a hermit playthrough I'd like my character to last a very long time. So a 15 day per year setting would help here. But if you're trying to play some grand civilization you'll probably want them to age as they do now. So they can make babies and have the children age up into adults ASAP. Most people would probably want something in the middle, a modest amount of settlers that live for a reasonable amount of time. No one answer will make anyone happy.

Ya, once I add modding support, this will likely be something players will edit as it's a very easy value to change in the game data.

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